If you’re unfamiliar, Tunecore is a digital music distributor. Musicians, bands and indie labels can skip the step of going through traditional distribution middlemen and use Tunecore to get their music onto iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and many more online platforms for a flat fee of $50. Since it’s inception, Tunecore has generated over $300 Million in royalties for it’s artists.

Jeff, an avid blogger and speaker, uses these avenues of communication to bluntly speak his mind about the hellish ins and outs of the traditional music industry. With blog titles like Why Everyone But The Artist And The Music Fan Is Doomed and How They Legally Steal Your Money, along with aggressive criticisms of Grooveshark and the industry in general, Jeff definitely fights for the little guy.

In fact, Tunecore partnered with Jakprints a few years ago to create a 70 page booklet called “Music Industry Survival Manual – New Rules For The Music Industry”  that we’ve  helped distribute at events like SXSW.

Head on over to the New York Times site to read an extensive profile of Jeff Price and TuneCore.

Take a look at this great info-graphic detailing the rise of the little photography app that could. And if you’re not already, make sure you follow Jakprints on Instagram! Our username is, well, Jakprints.

Image courtesy of Online Colleges.

Check out some of our favorite Pantone colors. What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

Watch the video below and get more details about the new colors on the Pantone website here.

E-books are starting to replace physical books, blogs are replacing magazines and newspapers, google maps are replacing the atlas, websites are replacing catalogs and the list goes on. But the truth is, we’re not worried. Humans will always need to connect physically to something. We’ll always need something in our hands, something genuine and authentic. A first edition Catcher in the Rye or even the first issue of The Lake Erie Monster in our hands does something to the way we feel on the inside that a PDF file just can’t elicit.  While CD sales are down, vinyl sales are way up. And studies show, college students are starting to prefer physical text books again because they find their attention strays to quickly on their iPads.

Prototype design for what a desktop "un-printer" could look like.

While all these paperless options may seem scary to some in the print industry, there’s no arguing that these advances are a good thing for our environment. The less waste, the better. Jakprints has always been extremely mindful of the environment and we go to great lengths to be responsible environmental stewards (read more: Jakprints Plants a Tree For Every Order), so we were pretty stoked when we read about this. Apparently, researchers at Cambridge have developed a reverse-printer that will remove, or to get nerdy about it, vaporize the ink from the paper so you can re-use it. Pretty awesome right? Check out this article from Fresh Books to read all about it. Pretty awesome right? Check out this article from Fresh Books to read all about it.

More than 75 bike and mustache enthusiasts gathered downtown with their “steeds” in turn-of-the-century garb for a joyride through a number of Cleveland neighborhoods. Rainy cold weather wasn’t a deterrent and almost added to the British feel of the event.  The ride began at Mall C and made it’s way to East 30th, back down to East 4th for a pitstop at Erie Island Coffee. Riders than cruised over the  bridge to Ohio City, continued down West 25th, Market Ave. and Bridge St. until they reached The Happy Dog.

Beverages were consumed and prizes were awarded for a variety of categories including, most dapper for the gentlemen and snazziest for the ladies, best mustache and most prized steed.

We had a blast and we’re happy to have been a part of  the Fantastic Cleveland Tweed Ride this year. Cleveland photographers Frank Lanza and Russell Lee were on hand to take some great photos (like the ones in this post). Head on over to the Tweed Ride Facebook page to see more photos from the event.

Since January, We’ve Planted More Than 12000 Trees

We were excited about Earth Day and to celebrate here at Jakprints, we’ve officially unveiled our tree planting campaign. Since January, we’ve pledged to plant a tree for every order processed. That’s right, every order placed for apparel, stickers, full color printing and large format printing will have a tree planted. Be sure to check out our redesigned Green Printing site, we’re pretty proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.

This is just the next step in our attempt to leave the planet better than we found it. We’ve always been mindful of the planet. Being green isn’t just a marketing angle for us, it’s an integral ingredient of the Jakprints culture.

Even in everyday life at our 130,000 square foot facility, environmental responsibility is practiced everywhere. In addition to vegetable-based offset inks and responsibly forested paper, all excess paper is recycled, there are compost bins in the kitchen and many of our staff ride their bikes to work. Since 2007, we’ve saved more than 29,000 trees; 5,700 cubic yards of landfill space; 11.9 milliongallons of water; 7.1 million kilowatt hours of electricity; 621,000 gallons of fuel; and 102,000 pounds of pollution.

While these stats may seem impressive to the casual observer, the staff here at Jakprints is constantly researching new ways to fuel our passion for being environmental stewards.

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Create Yours Now!™

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was this past Saturday night. The ten days leading up to the big night were jam packed with events celebrating the celebration. Kid Cudi and George Clinton played a free concert at the Q, The Beachland Ballroom hosted  a night of tribute bands called Appetite for Induction, Touch Supper Club hosted a tribute to the Beastie Boys called License to Ill and QuestLove DJing at B-Side, were just some of many events being held all across the city.

Regardless of where you stand on the Rock Hall, (We’re looking at you disgruntled Rush fans and Kiss Army members!) having the ceremony right here in Cleveland was great for the local economy, the local arts and the national perception of our city. We can’t wait until next time! In addition to all the excitement, there were some strange moments as well. There are plenty of articles out there giving you the highlights, so here, we bring you…

Ten Bizarre Things that Happened During Rock Hall Week

1. Seeing Rick Rubin, Robbie Robertson, John Mellencamp, Meg Ryan, Bette Midler and Chris Rock sharing a table. In Cleveland.

2. A large crowd of Clevelanders, lined up along the “red carpet” with hopes of seeing Slash, Flea, Chris Rock and 20 or 30 more superstars. Unfortunately most of the main attractions chose to use a back entrance. It wasn’t a total loss though, crowds got to see Alice Cooper, George Clinton, David Arquette, Michael J. Fox and Matt Pinfield.

3. Rap heavy hitter Lil Wayne played rhythm guitar the entire time during George Clinton’s set and we don’t think many noticed.

4. Robbie Robertson, legendary leader of The Band, is starting to look and move an awful lot like Lewis Black.

5. The majority of the Rock Hall sponsored shows, weren’t actually Rock and Roll– Girl Talk (dance/mashup), Kid Cudi/George Clinton (hip-hop/funk), Kirk Franklin (gospel), and Bootsy Collins (funk).

6. 75% of the audience at the George Clinton/Kid Cudi concert were teenagers under the age of 17 and their parents. Cudi stirred things up and asked all the kids to come clean and be honest and tell their parents that they smoke weed. It was almost as awkward as watching them all dance.

7. Ronnie Wood, who performed with the The Faces reunion, and also happens to be in a little band by the name of The Rolling Stones, still has as much energy as any of the guys in Green Day or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

8. Why was Kid Rock tapped to perform in the Beastie Boys tribute along side Black Thought and The Roots? It’s like asking Fred Durst to perform with Guns ‘N Roses.

9. And yes everyone who isn’t from here,  ”Hello, Cleveland!” and “Cleveland Rocks!” We get it.

10. George Clinton arrived at the ceremony in the Euclid Beach Park silver bullet!

And in true Rock and Roll fashion, our list goes to 11…

11. Kanye West jumped on stage during RHCP‘s set, while their new and very young guitarist was soloing, grabbed a mic and shouted– “Imma let you finish, but John Frusciante is the greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist of all time!”  Well, that didn’t really happen, just wishful thinking on our part.

Check out this video of the star-studded finale. Red Hot Chili Peppers performing Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground with Slash, Ronnie Wood, George Clinton and Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day.

Doesn’t everyone have that New Year’s resolution to finally eat better? But — let’s face it — most of us would rather eat potato chips until our lips bleed.

In comes Brad’s Raw Leafy Kale Chips, dehydrated, flavored kale that tastes so much better than it sounds! Vegan, gluten free, raw and all natural… It’s hard to believe something so healthy could taste so scrumptious. We’ve devoured all of the flavors — including Nasty Hot, Natural Nacho, Naked and Vampire Killer — and they all receive the Jakprints seal of approval.

Not surprisingly, Brad’s Raw Foods is passionate about the environment, too. Their business cards and flyers are printed on 100% recycled 13 pt. card stock. “We love using Jakprints because of your recycled paper and vegetable-based inks,” says Jaime Cahalan – New Business Development for BRF.

CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2012, aka Gadget Country, features every new electronic device you can imagine. We had a blast talking with the realistic, life-sized robots. Celebrities, like Justin Bieber, Tom Hanks, Jillian Michaels and – everybody’s favorite tech guru — Snooki, flocked to the event to help launch and promote products. One of the coolest products we saw was Sphero, a ball that you control with your iPhone or Android, a combination of real life and gaming all in one. The air was energetic as tech bloggers, media personalities and taste makers clamored to get a hands-on experience with all of this year’s newest gadgets.

The automotive world had a huge presence: electric cars with iPad sound systems and trunk-mounted flat screen TVs while Mercedes, Audi, Ford and Kia were showing off their latest concept cars. ESPN featured a live boxing match that streamed to their website. Our favorite, however, was Samsung’s movie-theater-sized 3D screen — it was so realistic we were dodging soccer balls during the demo.

When CES closed their doors, it was time for the after parties! Both Ludacris (Haze Party) and Dr. Dre (Monster Party) represented their headphone lines — the craziest was Will.i.am DJing at Haze, literally thousands of fans tried to get in. Afterward, we swung by a few small, private parties where we got to meet legendary producers Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson, Prince, Earth Wind and Fire).

The Las Vegas Convention Center was filled with thousands of product booths, keynote speakers and panels during CES. It was a real-life playground for adults to come, discover and play with all the new and upcoming products!